part! You ought to know that Burdovsky has
no need of being excused or justified by you or anyone else! It is an
insult! The affair is quite painful enough for him without that. Will
nothing make you understand?"

"Enough! enough! Mr. Terentieff," interrupted Gania.

"Don't excite yourself; you seem very ill, and I am sorry for that. I am
almost done, but there are a few facts to which I must briefly refer, as
I am convinced that they ought to be clearly explained once for all...."
A movement of impatience was noticed in his audience as he resumed: "I
merely wish to state, for the information of all concerned, that the
reason for Mr. Pavlicheff's interest in your mother, Mr. Burdovsky, was
simply that she was the sister of a serf-girl with whom he was deeply in
love in his youth, and whom most certainly he would have married but for
her sudden death. I have proofs that this circumstance is almost, if not
quite, forgotten. I may add that when your mother was about ten years
old, Pavlicheff took her under his care, gave her a good education, and
later, a considerable dowry. His relations were alarmed, and feared
he might go so far as to marry her, but she gave her hand to a young
land-surveyor named Burdovsky when she reached the age of twenty. I
can even say definitely that it was a marriage of affection. After his
wedding your father gave up his occupation as land-surveyor, and with
his wife's dowry of fifteen thousand roubles went in for commercial
speculations. As he had had no experience, he was cheated on all sides,
and took to drink in order to forget his troubles. He shortened his life
by his excesses, and eight years after his marriage he died. Your mother
says herself that she was left in the direst poverty, and would have
died of starvation had it not been for Pavlicheff, who generously
allowed her a yearly pension of six hundred roubles. Many people recall
his extreme fondness for you as a little boy. Your mother confirms this,
and agrees with others in thinking that he loved you the more because
you were a sickly child, stammering in your speech, and almost
deformed--for it is known that all his life Nicolai Andreevitch had a
partiality for unfortunates of every kind, especially children. In my
opinion this is most important. I may add that I discovered yet another
fact, the last on which I employed my detective powers. Seeing how fond
Pavlicheff was of you,--it was thanks to him you went to school, and
als